Aimee Howarth brings you an interview with The Yorker directors on the final day of the advent articles
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50 years after the publication of 'James and the Giant Peach', the works of Roald Dahl continue to celebrate success.
Labour performed woefully in the election and it looks as though the final nail has been hammered into Gordon Brown’s coffin. Already fighting to save his premiership, this seems to have finally killed off any hopes Brown had of holding onto the reins of power. The facts speak for themselves: Labour were demoted to third place by UKIP; they lost Wales to the Tories for the first time since 1918; and according to my Cornish housemate they were beaten into sixth place there by the Cornish nationalists. Whoever they are!
The Conservative Party will be happy with the results as they made small advances, increasing their share of the vote up from 26.7% to 27.7%. Most pleasing to them, however, will be the huge wane in popularity of the Labour Party. Surely the next general election cannot come soon enough for Cameron who, on this evidence, will soon be the newest resident of 10 Downing Street.
The big winner was UKIP who managed to beat Labour into third place in the overall result. They increased their number of MEPs to 13, giving them the same number as Labour. Having a 16.5% share of the votes, as opposed to Labour who only managed 15.7%, they were able to push Labour out of second place which they acquired in the 2004 elections.
Obviously, the other major talking point of these elections was the BNP's success. They managed to gain two MEPs, including one of the six available for Yorkshire and the Humber. Figures-wisen the BNP have not increased their share of the national vote by a considerable amount, only by 1.3 %, so their overall support has not increased significantly. Perhaps the blame should be apportioned to Brown and the Labour Party. It was their losses in the European election, rather than a surge in popularity for the BNP that led to the BNP gaining two seats.
It was their losses in the European election, rather than a surge in popularity for the BNP that led to the BNP gaining two seats.
The Green party and the Liberal Democrats will both be disappointed by the results. The Green party managed to win a higher percentage of the national vote. However, they were unable to turn their popularity into MEPs, achieving the same number they did in 2004. The Lib Dems on the contrary gained one MEP but their overall share of the vote went down.
The ramifications of the elections will be extremely interesting to watch over the coming weeks: will Gordon Brown still be Prime Minister in a month’s time? How will the success of UKIP at these general elections translate at the next general election? We will just have to wait and see...
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